Top 10 Best David Lynch Movies

Often named the best film of the 21st century. What begins as a classic Hollywood noir about an actress with amnesia (Laura Harring) and a naive newcomer (Naomi Watts) unfolds, at Club Silencio, into a heartbreaking, hypnotic nightmare about identity, jealousy and the disillusionment of the film industry. Pure cinematic magic.

When student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) finds a severed human ear in a green field, he descends into a sadomasochistic underworld in his seemingly idyllic hometown. Dennis Hopper's terrifying turn as gas-huffing psychopath Frank Booth and Isabella Rossellini as a tormented nightclub singer made this a groundbreaking cult classic.

'I am not an animal! I am a human being!' Lynch proved he could move audiences deeply within a historical studio framework. The true story, shot in beautiful black and white, of the severely disfigured John Merrick (John Hurt) and his doctor Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) earned eight Oscar nominations and has left generations of viewers teary-eyed.

Booed at its Cannes premiere, but now widely embraced as Lynch's rawest and most emotionally devastating work. The film follows the last seven tragic days of high school student Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Lee gives a performance of unprecedented intensity in which abuse, demonic evil and teenage despair converge.

Lynch worked on his hypnotic feature debut for five years. In a grim industrial wasteland, Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) tries to survive with his hysterical partner and a deformed, crying mutant baby. With its groundbreaking sound design and claustrophobic atmosphere, it became the ultimate midnight movie.

'We've met before, haven't we?' A jazz saxophonist (Bill Pullman) is convicted of the brutal murder of his wife (Patricia Arquette) and, on death row, suddenly transforms into a young car mechanic. Driven by a thrilling soundtrack featuring David Bowie, Trent Reznor and Rammstein, this is Lynch at his most feverish and ominous.

Lynch's most surprising and accessible film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The true story of 73-year-old Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), who rides an old John Deere lawn mower some 240 miles to reconcile with his ailing brother. A warm, poetic and deeply humane masterpiece.

Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Nicolas Cage in an iconic snakeskin jacket and Laura Dern as Lula race through a violent, depraved America in an open convertible, on the run from hired killers. A wild, ultra-violent reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz.

Shot on grainy consumer digital cameras without a finished script. Laura Dern gives a bewildering tour de force as actress Nikki Grace, who slowly disappears into the role she's playing in a cursed remake of a Polish production. A three-hour dive into pure artistic abstraction.

Despite the notorious battles over the final cut, Lynch's baroque adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction classic remains a fascinating visual spectacle. With Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, sandworms and a legendary cameo by Sting in a metal loincloth.